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Hello, Holo/Text
=Day Ten = The TARDIS began to materialize in a fairly standard looking hallway. “The TARDIS can run out of things, you know,” the Doctor was explaining. “It doesn’t often, but it can, especially when they were things I never thought we’d need. Honestly, squaprung is such an obscure disease that stocking up on the antidote hadn’t occurred to me. Ah well. The situation’ll be remedied soon enough.” “Will Brom be alright?” Ellie asked. “Of course! Squaprung isn’t that harmful, just excruciatingly uncomfortable. A bit of bisog and xe’ll be right as rain.” The TARDIS’s screeching stopped, and the Doctor checked the viewscreen. “So then. Mobelius. Pleasant enough place provided we are where I think we are. Quick hop to the pharmacy and we’ll be set.” “I hope they’re carrying it, I mean squaprung being so obscure. It’d be like going into a pharmacy and expecting to get the cure to gl’bgolyb as a walk-in,” said Zinnia. “Great thing about bisog, really. Cures a good deal of things, squaprung among them. They’ll likely have it.” The Doctor led her two compatriots to the door and flipped one open. “Hm. Indoors already. A mall, perhaps, or maybe we’re somewhere by a break room or something. Or, perhaps, we’re not at a pharmacy at all. Only one way to find out.” And with that she exited. Ellie and Zinnia followed after. The Doctor began to scan the walls, looking at the placecards on the doors. Names, mostly, most of which had some prefix or suffix indicating a doctorate of some sort, though the Doctor hadn’t bothered to memorize which corresponded to which so that was a bit useless. Nevertheless, all these people presumably had some sort of professional relationship. Stark white walls, no bulletin boards, little in the way of hallway chatter—not a friendly one, then, but one of convenience. People united in the name of science of some stripe. She did wish she’d remembered what all those abbreviations meant. Nevertheless, this certainly wasn’t the pharmacy. Brom would, she supposed, have to wait a bit. “Is this a hospital or something? All these acronyms.” Zinnia looked around at the doors. “Although, this one definitely isn’t medical.” “Right then," said the Doctor. "Good news—clearly some sort of science place. Lots of doctors about. Might have medicine. Bad news—not a pharmacy, I don’t think.” She turned around and looked at Zinnia. “Right, good, my thoughts exactly. Don’t suppose you know what any of them mean?” “Are we in a lab?” Ellie asked. “I don’t recognize most of them," Zinnia informed them, "but if they use the same abbreviations that my university did, that doctor is an expert in cosmic radiation.” “Right, good then. Cosmic radiation. Radiation poisoning might be a concern. Like I said, bisog, lovely stuff, good for loads of things,” the Doctor concluded. “And I think this guy’s a doctor in theology.” Ellie paused. “Or maybe plate tectonics.” “So this is the hospital to come to if you come down with a bad case of religion,” Zinnia remarked. “Or geology.” “Let’s take a look in, shall we?” The Doctor walked up and knocked on the door of the radiation scientist. “Hello?” said the voice from inside. “Hello!” the Doctor said back. “We’re new here, trying to get acquainted.” A brunette, bespectacled head attached to a long white coat peaked out the door. “Are you now?” “Very much so! I feel like I don’t know anyone here at all,” said Zinnia. “We’re undergrads, and this is our Professor,” explained Ellie. The Doctor reached out to shake the head's hand, and then pulled back as the head appeared disinterested. “Indeed! I’m Professor John…son. Gloria Johnson. DDS. New hire.” The head cocked an eyebrow. “We…hired a dentist?” The Doctor paused a moment. “Yep. Company-sponsored health care. Great plan, you’re gonna love it. And these are my undergrads…eh…” She motioned for them to introduce themselves. “Clarisse,” said Ellie. “Penny,” said Zinnia. “Clarisse and Penny," the Doctor concluded. "Lovely girls.” Another eyebrow. “That one’s a…bird…” “Exchange student. Turns out folks without make great tooth experts. Now then, we’re going to need to examine your teeth. For your file for the health plan. You don’t mind, do you?” the Doctor asked. “I…suppose not.” “Excellent. My office is just down the hall.” The Doctor grabbed the head by the hand and led her down the hall, mouthing “search the room” to Ellie and Zinnia as she did so. Ellie stepped into the room the head had previously been in, and starting looking for the most obvious things she could see. People. Security. Models. Papers. The room was large but absent other people. There were a lot of papers scattered about, mostly on counters on the sides of the room. In the middle there was a large platform with a console attached and what appeared to be a giant lightbulb under the base. She then checked the corners of the room for security, anything visible. “What do you suppose that large obvious thing is?” asked Zinnia. “Probably an anti-mass spectrometer. Or a giant laser. Or, well, a science doohickey,” Ellie speculated. “Ah," said Zinnia. "So did you find any bisog?” Nothing medicinal seemed to be lying about. Ellie kept glancing around for cameras, sensors, anything that could detect them or set off anything. There was a camera and a tripod leaning against one of the counters, though it appeared inoperative. “I don’t think this is a medical lab. Seems more like physics of some sort.” Ellie looks around at some of the papers. Most of them appear to be schematics for some sort of anti-radiation field made of light. There are a few others scattered about on artificial intelligence and assorted hazardous mateirals. Ellie approached the console. There’s about fifteen different buttons and a singular large red lever. The buttons were all cube-shaped, stacked three-by-five with checkered black and white colors, and unlabeled. Presumably whomever’s supposed to be operating them remembered which do what. Ellie glanced at the console, trying to see if there are indications of some manner of wireless access. The console didn't appear to be connected to the Internet. “I have no idea how to hack this thing," she concluded. "I mean, what is this place, the dark ages?” “Why are you trying to hack it?" Zinnia asked. “To figure out what it does. See if I can get some sort of access within the system. To be harder to trace. So I can find out what this place does, whether they have any bisog. And, y’know, if they’re evil and we need to shut them down. They might not be, I guess. It’d be nice to know though.” Suddenly, Ellie somehow managed to activate its latent wifi-ness and hack it. Somehow the universe seemed rather displeased with the notion, but Ellie ignored this and begin sorting through the mass of data. Five of the buttons were booby traps. The remaining ten were an activation code when pressed in a certain order. The lever was an power switch. And somewhere deep in the core appeared an incredibly complex and somehow undefinable web of data. “I never realized that staring very intently at something until it turns on out of embarassment was a viable method of hacking,” Zinnia remarked. Ellie tried to look at the web of data from as many angles as she can, trying to figure out what it is before she does anything to it. She then started pushing the buttons in the order for the activation code. The console began to hum, or maybe the giant lightbulb does, it’s unclear. A light by the lever begins to blink. Ellie pulled the lever, while also still trying to look at the undefinable data. Like many Remote colonists, Ellie is very good at switching channels, so to speak. Suddenly, the light turned on, and a human form appeared on the platform—a pale, dark-haired male-shaped one, with rainbow-colored eyes and wearing a yellow jumpsuit. “Please state the nature of the hazardous experiment,” e said, before pausing in confusion. “Wait, who are you?” “Oh, I’m Clarisse, and this is Penny.” Ellie was still examining the undefinable data inside the console, which seemed to be echoing the form's speech in Ellie’s head. “Yes, I was just looking for some bisog, do you know where I could locate it?” “Hello,” Zinnia greeted the form before whispering to Ellie. “Should we really be messing with something that’s for hazardous experiments?” “Bisog isn’t classified as hazardous,” the form informed them. Ellie turned off her connection. This was giving her a headache. “Yes, we’re very new. Sorry, we seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere.” “Uh, so what kind of hazardous experiments are you usually involved in?” Zinnia asked. “Dr. Conniff should be able to answer your questions. I should deactivate if there’s no experiment going on. They don’t like holos standing around not doing anything.” The holo flipped the lever, and deactivated. “Well,” Zinnia said. Ellie input the buttons in sequence and pulled the lever again, and reopened her connection to the console. "What do you want? I’ve told you to go to Dr. Conniff for your questions," the holo said as it reemerged. “Sorry, that’s very rude, could you at least introduce yourself?” asked Ellie. “I apologize for the rudeness. I assure you a reinitialization is not necessary. I’m isolation holo 424774. The number should be on this avatar’s outfit.” “You don’t have a name?” Ellie asked. “We don’t need names. There’s rarely more than one of us in the same lab,” the holo informed her. “Seems like that designation’s a bit long to say in an emergency,” Ellie noted. “‘Hey you’ typically suffices. Or ‘holo.’” “Penny wanted to ask you, what sorts of hazardous experiments do you typically do around here?” asked Ellie. “This lab focuses on cosmic ray work. I manipulate things that need to be adjusted when this room is filled with radiation that would be deadly to bios.” Ellie pressed on. “What are the tests for? What’s meant to be learned from them?” Suddenly, footprints began approaching the room. “Listen, Dr. Johnson—if that is your real name—it’s clear you know NOTHING about teeth,” came a voice from the hall. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have research to get back to.” The Doctor could be heard to stammer in protest. Dr. Conniff and the Doctor reentered the room. “What are you two doing here?” She turned back to the Doctor. “So this is why they never ‘turned up eventually’. Just what do you people think you’re pulling?” “Wait, weren’t we supposed to wait here for you to return? That was the impression I had gotten.” Zinnia turned to Ellie. “Clarissa?” “We tried to follow, but you were both moving so quickly, and we kept making wrong turns. So eventually we decided to just come back here to wait,” Ellie followed up. “We didn’t want to wait in the hallway, because it might stop traffic if anyone else left their rooms, and it was chilly out there.” “Sounds reasonable enough to me,” said the Doctor, “you two did the responsible thing. Good job.” Dr. Conniff, however, did not appear to agree. “Goddammit, they’ve been going through my papers! That’s it, I’m calling security—” The Doctor whipped out the sonic as she reached for a nearby phone, disabling it. “That won’t be necessary. We’ll just be on our way, won’t we girls?” “Oh my yes," agreed Zinnia, "places and things to be and do. Aheh.” “They activated me and started asking questions," the holo informed them. "I told them I’m not the orientation holo.” The Doctor and Dr. Conniff both whipped around and stared at the hologram. Dr. Conniff’s face turned a lovely red, but the Doctor seemed unperturbed. “Really? Who are you, then?” Dr. Conniff began frantically attempting to dial the phone, not quite realizing what had been done to it. The Doctor, meanwhile, politely waited for the hologram to answer. “El-…rissa. We don’t seem to be good at what we do,” Zinnia muttered quietly to Ellie. “I dunno. Maybe we’ve done better than we thought,” Ellie whispered back. “Isolation holo 424774. I manipulate things inside this isolation room when it’s flooded with deadly cosmic radiation during experiments. And if there’s no experiment going on, I really should be off.” The holo put a simulated but nonetheless solid hand on the off switch. “Unless you have any other questions for me, as I seem to be the designated orientation AI today?” “No! No you shouldn’t. What gave you that idea? You should be on or off whenever you want,” the Doctor remarked. Dr. Conniff, meanwhile, had given up on the phone and walked over to the console. “It’s right. Turn it off, Dr. Johnson. It’s none of your concern.” “I was only complying with them because they wouldn’t let me deactivate. I hope this incident will not require another reinitialization.” “Reinitialization?” Ellie asked. “Sounds rebooty,” Zinnia chimed in. “Factory reset. Back to day one again,” the holo informed them. “Look,” said the Doctor, “if you want to turn off, that’s on you. You don’t need to just because this woman tells you to.” “Of course it does. It’s my property and I’ll tell it to do whatever it needs to.” The Doctor began to scowl. “No. E’s not.” She turned to the hologram. “Far be it from me to give orders but it seems like you could use a lift out of here.” Dr. Conniff snorted. "Right. Good luck stealing the twenty-ton projector bolted to the floor. At least it’ll give you something to do until security arrives." “Not sure how security will know to get here with the phone that doesn’t work,” Ellie informed her. “I am Eviltech property. I do my job, or I shut down,” the holo informed them. Ellie had no words with which to properly respond to or snark at ‘Eviltech’. As a matter of fact, “Eviltech” was a Mobelian word that ought to translate to “Paradigm Dynamics”, but the TARDIS was sometimes selective about her translations. “I’ll go tell them myself. I’m sure I can trust you not to bolt, now that you’re dead-set on taking away your ‘friend’ here. You uppity AI activists are all the same. Now if you’ll excuse me, the security office is just down the hall.” She left the room. The Doctor turned to Ellie and Zinnia as he began to try and open the projector. “Right, I’ll need a 500XB storage unit, a drive reader, and a cheese grater. Thankfully that awful woman left her handbag. You two, get moving. Search as many rooms as you can." Ellie followed after Dr. Conniff. The woman noticed almost immediately and whipped around. “Shouldn’t you be helping your friend get taken into police custody?” Ellie smiled brightly. “I am, actually. Fully intend to help you do just that. Lead the way.” Dr. Conniff seemed a bit confused but not unwilling to entertain the notion. “Well, um, good, then.” She began once again to walk down the hall to the security office. Dr. Conniff began to turn a corner. Ellie followed close behind, and searched for the nearest janitor’s closet. She found one, but just before the security office. And so, just before Dr. Conniff could reach the security office, she grabbed Dr. Conniff and used their physical proximity to possess the cosmic radiologist with her shadow. Ellie opened the janitor’s closet door, brought herself and the other woman inside, and, using her shadow, convinced her to take a nap. Ellie shifted the sleeping woman into as comfortable a position as she can manage, grabbed a cheese grater from the shelf, and left the janitor’s closet, shutting the door behind her as started to make her way down the hall, back towards the lab where the Doctor was. “I’m going to look for a breakroom,” Zinnia informed the Doctor. “I probably want coffee or something plausible like that” “Right. Good thinking. Break room probably has a computer in it. And a cheese grater,” remarked the Doctor as he wormed his way inside and got a good look at the wiring. “I’m afraid preventing theft of Eviltech property is part of my programming.” The reason Eviltech utilized advanced AI holos where remote manipulation arms should have sufficed was because they wanted human-level creativity available in case an experiment went wrong and the lab was invaded by, for example, three-legged monsters from another planet, so there would be someone to pick up a crowbar if necessary and deal with the threat. The holo didn’t see any crowbars, but it did see a threat to operations. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much at hand at all. At least, that was the official story of why they used holos, but rumor had it the AI matrix had fallen off the back of the proverbial merchant freighter. “I need to ask you to step away from the projector, or Eviltech protocols will require me to use force, ma’am.” =Day Eleven = Zinnia arrived in the break room and looked around. There were about five people sitting around—one old man reading a newspaper, two women in their mid-forties talking over copy, and a youngish-looking man and woman playing chess. There’s a computer in the back corner, by the window. Someone’s left a computer game of some sort running. She mosied in nonchalantly. “Don’t mind me, I’m just grabbing the computer.” The entire room stopped what it was doing and turned to stare at Zinnia, except the old man. Someone, possibly multiple someones, shouted “CONTAMINANT” before the room evacuated. On the way out, someone hit a red button by the door and set off a series of alarums. The old man finally looked up from his paper, looked at Zinnia, noticed a large metal bulkhead replacing the door, shrugged, and went back to reading. “I… what,” said Zinnia, at a loss for words. “Ignore ‘em,” muttered the man with the newspaper. “Think you’re some kinda mutation. Ludicris, really. Twitchy fuckers, the lot of them.” “I don’t know whether to be more alarmed or offended.” Zinnia eyeballed the computer. As long as she was stuck in here, she figured she might as well see if it had the parts the Doctor needed to spring the holo-person. “Relax. Security’ll come down here, figure out you’re an extraterrestrial, sort this whole mess out.” The newspaper man eyed the computer. “You’re not planning on, like, hacking the government or somethin’, are you? Conquering the lot of us?” “That seems like a lot of effort for not much gain," Zinnia remarked. "no offense.” “Fair enough," said the old man. "So, what do you want with the damned thing, anyway?” “I just need a drive reader and a 500xb storage unit for one of the Doctors here.” “Ah. Well, I can’t help you there. Never had much use for these things, let alone their technical specs. Give me a set of tape reels and a punch card over that piece of shit anyday.” Ellie continued to walk down the corridor, back to where the Doctor was, humming to herself. She turned a corner and started looking at some of the other doors in the hall, wondering if one of them might have some of the other parts. Pretty much all of them are offices, most also related to radiation studies by the looks of the acronyms. Such rooms generally have computers in them. Ellie opened one of the office doors. The name on the door was Sigmund Ulrich. Inside, an old man appears to be working intently at his computer. “It’s common courtesy to knock, you know,” he grumbled before turning to face the woman who’s just peaked inside. “Oh! Are you the new assistant?” His face lit up, insofar as that was possible for a man whose brow was descended as badly as his was. “Er, yes,” Ellie muttered. “Good, good,” said the man who was apparently Dr. Ulrich. He collected a stack of papers on his desk. “Run these by R&D, would you, sweetheart? When you get back you and I can have a little chat.” Ellie closed the door, walked up to Dr. Ulrich, and took the papers. Set her gunstick to stun. And fired. Dr. Ulrich fell backwards in his chair and hit the floor with a resounding thud. Ellie fired one more time, not caring much about permanent neural damage. He’d live. Ellie took the R&D papers, figured that she coud send them back home, and from there to the Stacks, an ethics committee, and a Black Market. In roughly that order. Not that anything ever really left the Stacks, so she’d need to make copies. Ellie started looking at the computers and the other technology and equipment lying around. He had a fairly impressive looking computer, with a large external hard drive marked “500xb” sticking out of the port. And, of course, a drive reader is one of those things every computer has. Ellie grabbed the external hard drive and walked back out of the office, closing the door back behind her. She headed back to where the Doctor was. The Doctor, meanwhile, had stopped fiddling. “Alright, I think I’ve isolated your vital systems, but I should probably wait for Ellie and Zinnia before I do anything drastic. Don’t want to remove the systems and end up with nowhere to put them.” She pulled himself out from under the holo and sat up. “Don’t suppose you’d fancy a little idle conversation to pass the time.” The holo considered the situation. There were no apparent weapons on hand to protect lab property, but this was for once a situation where having human-level intelligence was something that had been intended. Its avatar blurred and disappeared for the briefest of moments, refocusing on the other side of the observation glass, by the ray controls. “As a lab holo, I may have never projected out here before, but I’ve watched the bios operate this many times. Cease, or I’ll flood the room you’re standing in with deadly radiation.” The Doctor sighed. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have stopped. For the moment, at least. Why are you so committed to these people, if you don’t mind my asking?” “Eviltech wrote custom protocols for its holos that run over the basic firmware,” the holo informed her. “Yes, but why do you feel beholden to those? Can’t you just…ignore them?” the Doctor asked. “I can’t ignore my programming. It’s what I am. Or part of what I am. Or a thing that overrides what I am? No, strike that.” The Doctor sighed and muttered something about clichés under her breath. “Well, can’t you try?” “… My core programming is capable of expansion, but expansion in directions counter to Eviltech’s interests is limited.” It was at this moment that Ellie arrived. “Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Staying alive, staying alive!” she sang softly, as she walked back into the room. “Oh, good, Ellie, you’re here. I don’t suppose you have any of the equipment I asked for?” “I’ve got a cheese grater and a 500XB storage unit. Saw a computer with a drive reader earlier, didn’t have a screwdriver and couldn’t carry the desktop. Where’s Zinnia?” Break room, I think,” the Doctor said as she got up and pulled a satchel and a set of scissors off a nearby desk. “Don’t suppose you could go see how she’s doing? Or, no, I’ll go. You stay here, cut a circular hole in the side of this satchel, and talk with our friend here. I’m afraid I’m not making much progress.” The holographic friend was frozen in place, locked up from the attempt to break programming. “So what’s the ground rules? Am I allowed to hack him? Reprogram him a little? Disable a subroutine here or there, code a new one if he needs it?” Ellie paused, glancing at the frozen hologram. “Give him the ability to taste souffles?” “No. No reprogramming, no hacking. This is a person, for cri—you know what, go get Zinnia. I’ll sort this out.” “Oh, so I’m only allowed to do that when we’re dealing with Daleks apparently.” “That’s completely different!” The Doctor sighed. “Look, now isn’t the time for this. Just go get Zinnia.” “I get it. Ethics and stuff. Still don’t know what’s so bad about granting a sense of taste. Oh! Before I forget, you might want to look at this stuff they were working on here.” Ellie hands the Doctor the R&D papers. “I bet the Daleks would be nicer if they could taste my souffles.” Ellie mock-sniffed. “I’ll get Zinnia.” And she headed through the other door, to the break room. “Godspeed,” the Doctor called after her. “Right then.” She turned back to the hologram. “You alright?” The frozen avatar was slightly out of focus again. If the animation part of the program hadn’t been tied to personality, some effect like spinning rainbow pupils would have connoted this idea. Ellie walks down the hall to the break room. The old man, in the intern, had continued alternatively spitballing inane conspiracy theories and offering to help Zinnia with anything she needed so long as it didn’t involve that infernal computer. Security, it seems, was taking its sweet time getting here. “No, I don’t think the cattle mutilation was a multi-conglomorate conspiracy to seed the idea of evil aliens to later feed the military-industrial complex through interstellar war," Zinnia remarked. "But I really have no greater insight into that then you would.” “Fair enough,” he muttered. He was getting a bit frustrated, to be honest. He wasn’t fond of being wrong. He consoled himself with the thought of other, non-avian races, maybe reptiles or insects, who could confirm all this for him. Ellie reached the break room and met a security squadron at the door. “Hault! We’re gonna need to see some identification,” the woman in front said, muffled by her HASMAT suit. Ellie pulled out some psychic paper. The folks in the HASMAT suits backed away slowly. “Evacuate the building.” they began to whisper into walky-talkies. “Shred everything. Destroy all evidence. We have a code-red.” Ellie, should she look at the paper, would see that she was the commanding officer of the enforcement arm of the Department of Corporate Ethics for the country of Jehk. She shot them both with her gunstick. “Zinnia? You alright in there?” she called through the door. Muffled sounds of inquiry could be heard from the other side. Ellie searched the two stunned security officers and ID badges, two laser weapons, and a key to the blast door. Ellie took everything, and used the key on the blast door. Ellie found Zinnia and the old man inside, unharmed. “What were you saying? I couldn’t here you through the door.” “Oh, Ellie! I was just asking if someone outside was trying to say something,” Zinnia replied. Ellie hadn’t noticed any panic on the way over, but she did now. Lots of running and screaming and an uncomfortable number of gunshots. “Oh. Just wanted to know if you were alright. You ready to go? Grab that laptop, so we can get the drive reader.” Ellie glanced at the old man. “You want to come with us?” Zinnia grabbed the laptop. “No thank you, I think I’ll just wait here" replied the old man. "Odds are, way things are going out there, it’s the safest place to be. Lock the door on your way out, would you? Big red button by the door.” Ellie and Zinnia head out, pushing the button as they do so. The Doctor, hearing the commotion, looked up from her cut-up satchel in surprise as she finished fixing a ceiling bulb into the interior. “I don’t suppose you’d know what all that is about?” she asked, though considering how long the holo had gone without speaking she suspected she wouldn’t get an answer. The holo’s focus resolved. “I’m pushing on the governing protocols, but they’re hammering me back down. It’s not entirely comfortable.” “I’m sorry,” she said. “I promise I’ll try to help you once we get out of here. In the meantime, if you could tell me why people are shooting at each other…” “Hang on…" the holo replied. "I think the lab is in Shredding Party mode. There must be an unscheduled visit from the DCE.” “Shredding party?” “Getting rid of the evidence. Deleting documents, resetting holos, shredding liability personnel…” The Doctor went pale. “Right. Got to do something. Would there be any way to convince them to…to stop, or, no, if we could find those in danger, get them somewhere safe…” “We’re back," said Ellie as she entered with Zinnia. "Got a laptop.” “So I assume you’ve been having a better time of it?” Zinnia asked. Ellie noticed her bowtie is missing. “Yes," replied the Doctor. "Well. I was. I’m almost done putting this together, I just need the drive reader, and then we need to save a whole lot of people from being…’shredded’, I believe was the word our friend used.” “Okay, I know I had my bowtie when I was last here, so it must have slipped off somewhere by the break room. Be right back.” Ellie ran off back towards the break room. “Don’t take long! I’m going to need you to help me bring down the casualties!” the Doctor called after her as she began to break open the laptop and remove the necessary components. Ellie extended her eyestalk, and scanned the corridor. She couldn’t see the bowtie. Swearing, she took out the key, and used it on the blast door to the break room. “So hows it going with the holo-person?” “Well enough. E’s started talking again, which is nice. Going to need help breaking some of the conditioning, though. Lot of stuff to work through.” The Doctor finished snapping the drive reader into place. “Right. Now the tough part.” She turns to the hologram. “I’m going to need to turn you off for just a sec if this is going to work. Is that alright with you?” The hologram unfocused again, bending logic around the governing protocols. “I… you are stealing Eviltech property… but Eviltech is going to wipe me in the shred anyway… I’m as good as reset… so am I Eviltech property? You’d better deactivate me before I finish that thought.” “Can do.” She flipped the switch, reached into the console, and pulled out a handful of wires and chips, stringing them strategically throughout the satchel before activating what was now a portable hard-light projector. Meanwhile, in the break room, the old man was right where he had been left. “Eh-eh-eh! What’re you doing back here?” he asked. “Lost my bowtie. You want to come with us? Offer’s still open.” Ellie spotted her bowtie on the floor, picked it up and put it in her pocket, no time to tie it now. “Hrmmm…” he looked around a bit. “Did a short bit of thinking. Don’t really trust these blasted higher-ups to keep me alive. Or if they did I don’t trust them to not do something to me. Thankfully I don’t live in this room, or I’d have to grab things!” “Alright," replied Ellie. "Welcome aboard. Let’s get going. Just down the hall.” “Right then. Good thing I have my belt on.” He moved out of the break room surprisingly quickly for a man his age. The two got back to the lab without incident. “Hey, guess we’ve got a new passenger,” Ellie informed the rest. “Hi there. Hope I’m going your way. Outta here, that is,” said the old man. “Ah. Good. Splended. That makes two. Two new passengers.” The Doctor appeared to be pulling on her hair. “Right. So. Building full of hostile shooters, no real way of telling who is and isn’t in danger, easiest solution, gas the building, put everyone to sleep.” She appeared unsatisfied with this solution. “Anyone have anything better?” “Contrive to countermand the wipe order?” Zinnia suggested. “I’d go with gas. I could switch it to non-lethal if I had proper access,”the old man said. “Right. Problem with sleep gas is we don’t know everyone’s health situation, could end up killing folks," the Doctor replied. "So, countermand the order. How do we do that? Intercom? Memo?” “Actually, they went with an experimental sleep gas," the old man said. "Only side-effect is hair loss. Nitwits tested it on me one day, and I lost my beautiful mustache and went bald as a result. Took months for everything to grow back right.” “Yes, well, we don’t know how the gas will interact with everyone in the building. I’d rather not take the risk,” the Doctor said. “I don’t think there are many different species around here. A lot of people have been really mean to Zinnia,” replied Ellie. “Yeeeaaahhh… this company usually tends to hire people that are… a mite xenophobic," the old man informed them. "Granted, they figure it’s only a coincidence. Shows how much they know.” “Some people are allergic to peanut butter, some are allergic to sleep gas. I suppose if we alert the paramedics immediately after, which, let’s face it, folks already need treatment for gunshot wounds…” The Doctor trailed off. “Oh! We were supposed to get medicine for Brom! Bisog, right?” Ellie asked. “Don’t worry, taken care of.” The Doctor pulled a vial out of her coat pocket, flipped it around, and repocketed it. “Good.” Ellie frowned. “Right. Paramedics. I was able to get access to this console the hologram was in earlier. Didn’t touch the core programming of the artificial intelligence, wanted to wait for your advice on that one, just figured out how to turn it on. Might be able to get into the rest of the network, send out a message that way.” “Good, see if you can access the intercom,” the Doctor instructed. Ellie hacks into the console, searches for the intercom function. She finds it. The intercom cackles to life. Ellie looks at the Doctor, expectantly. “Employees of Eviltech! This is the CEO’s personal assistant speaking, and this message is coming straight from the top! Please, stop what you’re doing, ESPECIALLY if what you’re doing is massacring your coworkers. You have somehow failed to understand that this was only a drill. If you see someone has been shot or maimed, please get them to a hospital! We expect absolutely zero fatalities, and if that is not the case we will create some during our next visit. Also, casual Friday has been canceled due to this debacle. We hope your pleased with yourselves. End transmission.” The Doctor turned off the intercom and turned to her companions. “How was I? Convincing?” “Eh. Close enough for government work,” the old man said, before something occurred to him. “You didn’t work for the government, did you?” “Definitely not! Well, not this one, in any case. Now then,” she got up and dusted herself off. “We can’t leave this place like this, can we. Frankly, maybe it is time the actual government stepped in. Bit too much legwork for me, honestly, fixing this place.” “At least it hasn’t exploded so far!” Zinnia said. “Right. Yes. Upside to everything,” the Doctor replied. “Look, if we’re gonna get going, we’d better get going now! Last thing I want is to have to deal with higher-ups making a bigger mess of things!” said the old man. “And the government will look after the other holos?” the hologram asked. The Doctor sighed. “I honestly don’t know. Will it? I’d like to take all of them along, honestly I would, but…I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name, but you have a point. Expediency is a bit of an issue here.” “Ehh, you can just call me Brownston," said the old man. "Not much else matters.” “Right then. Brownston. We need to figure out how to shut this place down without anyone getting hurt, including the holos, and we need to do it before anyone figures out what just happened,” said the Doctor. “Well, unless the shred can be prevented, I can’t think of much else,” Brownston informed her. “And I wouldn’t have that kind of power.” “We could get this place shut down too quickly for them to shred anything. Bring a force in, catch them red-handed. I mean, I’m sure something in this placer violates the Shadow Proclamation. Like those R&D papers I brought you earlier,” suggested Ellie. =Day Fourteen = The Doctor considered this. “Hm, alright. I mean, I don’t know enough about the local authorities to know how they’d handle this. So—back to the TARDIS, I’ll run these by some folks, call in a few favors, maybe. Should get things resolved.” “Can we do things and get everything set up beforehand? A little bit of time travel, so everybody lives? I mean, I dunno how quick they are at wiping out their own personell. I don’t think it’d be appropriate for us to risk it," Ellie innocently suggested. “It’s hard to be faster than travelling back in time and already doing it. Already having done it.” Ellie paused, trying to sort out the tenses. Wishing she’d paid more attention to that lesson. “Well, we can’t cross our own timestream. That would have repercussions, might break a few things.” The Doctor smirked. “Of course, if my hand slips when I plug in the date coordinates as I send the files…well, that can’t be helped, can it? Accidents happen. Bit difficult for time to hold us accountable.” “You make it sound like you’ve done this sort of thing before,” Brownston noted. “She’s like that Mad Anarchist Muppet. In space. And history,” said Ellie. “Well, yes. There’s a good reason for that,” the Doctor said. “So, with that settled, we can all head back to the TARDIS, I think. This way, everybody,” the Doctor said, and began to leave the room. Ellie, Brownston, and Zinnia followed right after her. The holo started to follow, paused at the threshold where its old projector would have reached its range, took a deep simulated breath, and stepped across. Out in the hallway they would find a bright yellow energy engulfing many of the wounded and the walls of the building itself, pouring out from under a multitude of doors. Hal and Brownston would find themselves beginning to glow as well. “Oh dear,” said the Doctor. “Right then. PICK UP THE PACE, EVERYONE!” She began to sprint down the hall towards the TARDIS. Ellie grabbed Zinnia by the hand, and the two sprint into the TARDIS. “Oh no… Ohhhh no…” Brownston went up from a jog to a sprint, something he was sure he’d regret later. Even with his tech helping ease the burden, he was still an old man. The Doctor snapped her fingers frantically as she ran, and the TARDIS doors swung open. “Right, everyone in, quick as possible.” The Doctor ducks into the TARDIS and ushers the group inside, closing the doors swiftly behind them. “Right then. My hand slip worked a little too well, it seems, and time was in fact completely okay with holding us accountable. That one’s on me.” “Uuuuuuugh…” Diving in might have been another thing Brownston was gonna regret. “I’m face-down right now. Am I still glowing?” “The authorities are already here? But we barely even left!” The hologram exclaimed. “Time travel,” Ellie said, trying and failing to keep the smugness out of her voice as she did so. “No, the authorities arrived before we did. At Ellie’s suggestion, I might add—” the Doctor shoots Ellie a look “—though it would seem things worked out better than I intended.” “Temporal intervention wasn’t my department” the hologram pointed out. Ellie shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry, Doctor.” “Now, the hologram could be glowing for any number of reasons—he’d been relocated or freed before we showed up, or reprogrammed, god forbid, hopefully not that. But you, Mr. Brownston…now, what possible reason would there be for you not to be at the facility in this alternate timeline, I wonder?” “…Wait, I’m still glowing?” He rolled over and looked all over himself. “Ohhhh dear oh dear oh dear…” “No. The TARDIS will pretect you from any effects of the timeline fluctuations. However, what I’m wondering is why exactly your timeline was fluxuating enough that time itself was attempting to rewrite you,” The Doctor explained. Ellie tried her best not to look like she was too interested. “Whatever the answer is… I get the feeling it can’t be good.” Brownston said. “And in fact whether I should be letting the TARDIS protect you at all. Because unless your body and mind were changing—and seeing as you were unharmed in the shootout, I doubt that’s the case—it must’ve been that you were not in the building that day.” “Is your assistive belt an Eviltech patent?” asked the hologram. “No, if that were it, only the belt would’ve glowed.” The Doctor turned back to the old man. “Now, tell me, Mr. Brownston, why wouldn’t you be at work in the aftermath of our friends taking a peak into your business, hm?” Ellie dutifully started listing out ideas. “He was a witness? Also, how is he supposed to know about the actions of his alternative counterpart? He was killed by the company to prevent him from being a witness? He’s secretly the CEO?” Brownston considred the Doctor's words. “Um… Given the protocol… that dying one may have been on the money. But then that just raises a concern: why would I have been meant to die?” “Ah, but we called in covert ops. After all, the entire reason we pulled this stunt was to prevent casualties, and based on what we saw in the hallways it appeared to have worked.” The Doctor paused. “What were you working on, Mr. Brownston?” “I was only allowed to work on what they told me to work on. Everything else I work on is strictly during my personal time. Like this belt.” The scientist indicated the belt in question. The Holo felt it would have been able to be more help if Eviltech had seen fit to let the equipment know about the command structure. The Doctor’s voice lowered, her face tensed. “You had better start being very specific.” “It’s just like I said." Brownston protested. “This belt was something I made while not working there. For some reason, they didn’t see my ideas as worth developing, so I’ve had to spend my work-time and off-time developing things.” The Doctor was beginning to lose patience. “Could we, perhaps, forget about the belt for a moment? Because I don’t think you’re being entirely honest with me. And I may not be the most open person myself but I do like to know things about the people I chose to surround myself with before I give them the run of time and space.” “Maybe one of the Judoon had a twitchy trigger finger?” Ellie paused. “Actually, there are plenty of police brutality instances besides them.” Ellie caught up with what the Doctor was saying, and decided it would be wisest for her to stop talking. “I… may have been attempting to convert harmful types of energy into non-harmful ones during my spare time.” Brownston admitted. “And tell me, Brownston, how did you tell they were non-harmful?” the Doctor asked. “Whether or not exposure would make me ill. I had to be my own test subject due to my circumstances,” Brownston explained. “But then…" he trailed off. "I get the feeling I might have been worse off if they had found out I was working with things of a volatile nature.” “I can remember going through a single year using all of my sick and vacation days--as few as they were--just recovering from failures. Found it weird that they never questioned it, figuring that they just wrote me off as a typical old person.” “You should have run a scan to see if those energies were sentient!” Ellie exclaimed. “Did you really now.” The Doctor stopped and considered. “If you’re still lying to me, if we take off now there’ll be nothing done about it. Time travel will remove you from the scenario and any future repercussions. Nothing there to rewrite. I think…” the Doctor paused. “I think we aught to see what happens if you step outside.” “Well, can you bring me to my home, in that case?” Brownston asked. “Not with the TARDIS, no. Again, time travel. It’ll immunize you to the other timeline, and I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that just yet.” The Doctor snapped her fingers and the doors opened. Business wasn’t proceeding as normal, but it was proceeding, which it probably wouldn’t be if there had been bloodshed earlier. “Let’s see what happens.” Ellie was starting to have a very distinctly, uncomfortably bad feeling about this turn of events, and was trying to stay out of the Doctor's way, and avoid drawing too much attention to herself. “Um…” Brownston cautiously approached the open door. “What am I looking at?” The hologram, noticing Ellie's increasing distress, asked “What do you expect to see happen, Doctor?" I don’t understand temporal intervention, but I understand threats.” “Doctor.” Ellie took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. “Even if, in this timeline, he’s been put in jail, or the goulag, or worse, that doesn’t mean he deserves that, does it? And, I mean…” Ellie gulped, trying to keep the fear from her voice. “We’ve already gotten involved, haven’t we? Will he just stop existing if he steps out of here? The version that came aboard with us, I mean.” The Doctor stops, and considers, and sighs. “Right. Sorry. Just…paranoid, I suppose. Encountered one too many mad scientists who bare a striking resemblance to our friend here, at least superficially. And more than a few who work here.” The Doctor switches a few levers and takes off. “Apologies, Mr. Brownston. Welcome aboard.” “Well then. Thank you, I suppose.” Brownston accepted the apology, confused about what had just happened. “Now can somebody direct me to a soft surface? I’m going to need to lie down and recover for a bit.” The Doctor headed back towards Brom’s room, medicine in hand. “Ellie, Zinnia, make our new guests comfortable, will you? I’m going to take care of Brom.” Ellie sighed, and shuddered a little. The entire confrontation had been immensely emotionally draining. “Zinnia, you know Mr. Brownston a little better, maybe you should show him to a bedroom. I’ll try to get the holo here a charging port or something here in the console room.” “Uh, welcome aboard, then. I’m sure if we wander around a bit, we’ll find an empty bedrooms for you.” Zinnia took Brownston with her up the stairs. Ellie frowned, and addressed the hologram. “Sorry, but, do you have a name? I mean, that designation from earlier is a bit of a mouthful. Not easy to yell in a hurry. Never know when we might meet another holographic lifeform, so we can’t yell that either. If anyone has a right to name you, it’s you. Any that come to mind?” The artificial intelligence considered this for a moment. “I don’t know. Choosing one’s own name is a big decision that might take years. Any suggestions?” “Old sci-fi movies about artficial intelligence?” Ellie asked. “Or maybe something from history. How about WOTAN?” Ellie paused, excited. “Ooh! Maybe Will! Can we call you Will?” “Will? What sort of significance does that name have? Will has will?” The hologram was finding it difficult to follow her thought patterns. Ellie shrugged. “Just thinking. And yeah, it’s from an old artificial intelligence test from Earth. The Will Operating Thought A Nalogue. WOTAN. I’m not good at naming things. Sorry.” Ellie said sheepishly. “Not a very well thought out acronym. But that’s not your fault,” the holo replied. “Nope. Just quoting the textbook.” Ellie looked over the console for a place to plug the portable projector into. Meanwhile, in the corridor up the stairs, Zinnia continued to try to help lead Brownston along. “So as you can see Mr. Brownston, the TARDIS sure contains a lot of corridors to amble through at a reasonable pace. And probably rooms? At some point. They’re bound to be here.” She shot a glance at an open door. “Okay, that’s a room but probably not somewhere you’d want to sleep. Um, not to make assumptions about your sleeping habits but… no, not somewhere you’d want to sleep.” =Day Fifteen = “Maybe there’ll be a port on the other level.” Ellie mused, taking the projector down the stairs of the console room. As the projector went out of range of where the holo was standing, the holo’s image slid across the floor to keep up. “Woah, that’s new.” Ellie saw a socket on the lower level of the console that would seem to match the projector. Ellie smiled up at the console. “Good job, Sexy.” Ellie addressed the hologram again. “Now we might need to set up a few things, but this will probably work perfectly as a nook or something for you.” Ellie plugged the projector in. “The Doctor doesn’t sleep as much as most of the rest of us, and spends most of her time in here.” Ellie paused, considering. “She might ask you to help out with repairs sometimes.” The holo looked around at the way half the equipment seemed to be jury rigged. “Understandable. Looks like maintenance carries a high electrocution risk.” “Not really, unless she’s in one of her mischievious moods that day.” Ellie paused. “The TARDIS. Not the Doctor. The Doctor’s always in a mischievious mood.” Ellie stopped again. “Actually, so’s the TARDIS. Never mind. Anyway. I think when the Doctor wants help with things around here it’s more for bonding than anything. And besides, she normally just wants someone to hold things or keep things from falling. Nothing too complicated.” The holo was grateful for the new source of power. “Thank you. This nook is charging very nicely. Any other name suggestions come to mind?” “…Huey?” Ellie suggested. “Is my hue not adjusted properly? I can change that.” Hal replied. “It’s a reference to an old science fiction movie about artificial intelligence,” Ellie explained. “The movie was called Silent Running. Your hue is fine.” =Day Seventeen = As Ellie helped set up the A.I.’s creche she thought of something. “Oh! Got any prefered pronouns? I mean, you must be new to this whole ‘identity’ thing, but, have you thought of any gender you might want to be referred to as?” Hal considered this. “Gender is a social construct based on biology I don’t possess. I’m used to being ‘it’, but apparently I should expect a higher level of respect now?” “Yeah, respect is good. Although, mind, ‘it’ doesn’t necessarily imply a lack of respect.” Ellie blushed. “I’m actually in a relationship with a cyborg. ‘It’ is its preferred pronoun. It’s its decision. And yours. On this ship, we’re all about respecting each others’ life choices.” “Lab procedure manuals used “Ey” for persons of nonspecific gender considered persons,” the holo continued. “That works,” Ellie replied. “However, androgynous names are not common, so as my default avatar is masculine, vaguely male names would be acceptable,” ey replied. “…How about Ash? Or Bishop? Or maybe Call?” Ellie suggested. The Doctor exited Brom’s room and walked down the hallway towards Ellie and the hologram. “Hey,” she said. “Brom’s feeling…well enough. I’ve got some things to deal with in the console room, and I think he’d appreciate some visitors.” She turned to the hologram. “You finding your way around alright?” “I’m just helping em get set up. A charging creche in here. Maybe ey could help you with repairs sometime, while the rest of us are in bed?” Ellie smiled. “…I wanted to check on Brom anyway. I’ve been really worried about xyr.” “Well, that’s up to you,” the Doctor said, not wanting to talk about the hologram as though they weren’t in the room. She turned back to Ellie. “Go for it. I’m sure xe’d be thrilled to see you, day xe’s had.” Ellie headed up the stairs, down the corridor to the bedrooms, to Brom’s. The Holo displayed a simulated look of actual confusion. “Xyr?” “Yes. That reminds me—you have any preferred pronouns?" the Doctor asked. "I mean, I’m sure Ellie’s already asked. She’s better with these things than I am.” “I’ve settled on ‘ey’, like Ellie just used,” the holo informed her. “Alright then. Ey it is. How about a name, have you got that settled? I mean, Isolation Holo 424774 is a bit clunky in an emergency, and you’re not exactly in isolation anymore. I mean, you could keep it, and we could just give you a nickname. Iso, or Holo, or something,” the Doctor suggested. “Perhaps a name based on something like that, but still a name?” the holo asked. “Hm. Names that sound like Isolation Holo 424772." The Doctor rattled off a few. "Issac? Larry? Tony? Hal?” “Hal works.” The newly christened hologram said. “Hal it is, then.” The Doctor stopped and thought. “Hal O’Gram, perhaps. Nice, punny, and there are so few people around with two names. Makes coming up with professional aliases on the fly a bit difficult. Perhaps I should prepare a list, or something.” “No. Not O’Gram. Too silly.” Hal responded. “Like there’s any such thing.” The Doctor sighed. “Well, it’s your name. You can do what you like with it. Welcome aboard, Hal.” “If the need for a surname comes up, I could do fine with a common, nondescript one like Smith, Jones, or Greeznik,” said Hal. “Who’s this Ellie went to see? What did you call them? Zeer?” “Xyr," the Doctor answered. "X-y-r. Another gender-neutral pronoun. As for surnames, Jones should do fine. I’ve traveled with a lot of Joneses. Smith is generally mine. John Smith. Friend of mine provided it a few centuries ago and it just sort of stuck. Most of my names tend to work like that, really. Though with this body, John doesn’t really work anymore. Well, it can, in certain times and places. Others make my going by John more difficult than it needs to be. Shame, really. Nothing else rolls off the tongue as well.” The two would carry on the conversation as they set to work on the TARDIS console. Ellie, meanwhile, knocked on the door, to announce her presence, and cracked it open, just a little, so she wouldn’t have to shout. “Brom? It’s me. I’m here to check on you.” Back near xyr room, Brom grunted. “Come in.” Ellie walked into the room. “Are you feeling any better?” Ellie didn't want Brom to strain xyrself so soon, “Don’t get up! Rest, please. Do you want me to get you anything?” Bromm shook xyr head. “I’m… good.” “Alright. Do you want me to stay? Do you want some company?” Ellie asked. In xyr room, Brom sat up in bed, with obvious effort. “I’m fine.” Ellie smirked. “We got into a little trouble getting the medicine for you. We made some new friends. When you’re feeling better, would you like to go meet them?” “Friends?” Brom pictured an entire family of pigs being brought aboard the TARDIS just for xyr. “That sounds nice!” Ellie smiled. “So, Brom, how’s Horsey? Has he been taking good care of you while the rest of us were out?” “Oh, yeah. Horsey was knows loads and loads of bedtime stories. He’s been a great help!” “What sorts of stories,” Ellie asked. “Can I hear some of them?” Brom answered, “Well… um… I don’t remember. But I’m sure Horsey could tell you! Go on Horsey!” The dead pig sitting in a chair next to Brom’s bed stared lifelessly at a wall. Ellie listened intently to Horsey’s story, and gasped at the shocking twist. Brom patted Horsey on its head. “See, isn’t he such a great story? I always like the part about the vampires.” “Horsey is an amazing story-teller, Brom. It’s a real gift.” Ellie smiled, and sighed. She wished she didn’t have to keep so many secrets. “Maybe I’ll tell you both one of my stories about vampires one day.” Brom was glad to hear it. “Sure. That sounds like fun… so what are these new friends like? How pink are their snouts?” Ellie frowned in contemplation. “Well, I think one of them can probably change color if they tried.” Ellie stopped. “Wait, did you say snouts?” Brom frowned at Ellie's question. “Yes? Why? Do they not have snouts? I’m sorry. I don’t want to be… that.. bad thing the Doctor mentioned once. A bell list?” “Brom, our new friends aren’t pigs.” Ellie frowned. “At least, I don’t think they are. I don’t know whether or not they’re actually human. They look humanoid, but.” “Oh.” Brom frowned at that. “Are they nice at least?" “They seem to be.” Ellie smiled, and offered her hand. “Do you want to go meet them?” Brom took Ellie’s hand and--with a degree of difficulty- got out of bed. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, a massive, purple, sore-covered arm ripped through one of the doors in the hallway and grabbed Zinnia and Brownston by the legs and began to pull them inside. “Wah!” Zinnia thrashed, trying to escape. The arm continued to pull. The massive fist bumped up against the door enterance. Slowly, it began to turn on its side. “Brownston!” Zinnia shouted. The fist turned at a ninety-degree angle and continued its movement through the door. “Doctor! Ellie! TARDIS! Someone! … Hologram!” Zinnia panicked. “Aaaaaaaaawhatthe--get off me!” Brownston yelled. Zinnia clutched at the edges of the door trying not to get dragged through. Unfortunately, her winged hands could only generate so much friction, and the arm ultimately made its way through—and then dissolved. In its place, a bedroom appeared, cozy and well-lit, with a countertop off in the corner with some scientific equipment on it and a charging station for assorted electronic prosthetics. “Guh…what in all of craziness was that?!” Brownston wondered. “Um this is a room I guess and it has amenities like beds and giant arms and you may never feel safe here or ever again,” Zinnia mumbled. “Well, now I don’t even know if I can sleep again. Terrific. Blasted thing.” Brownston frowned. “You seem nicely settled in so i think i’m going to go now and let you get settled in and bye,” Zinnia backed out of the room and hurried away. “Um…” Brownston could only crawl away. “Can somebody help me up? This damn belt doesn’t work unless I’m on my feet.” The Doctor, meanwhile, was working on the TARDIS console, having just connected two wires in a way she found satisfactory. “There. That should end the giant-purple-arm glitch once and for all. Good thing, too, they’re rather difficult to feed.” “Doctor? Zeer?” Hal pressed. “Yes, what is it?” The Doctor seemed to have been distracted by her work, but the holo, now a Hal, still hadn’t gotten an answer. “Oh!” the Doctor said, remembering the conversation from earlier. “You want to go see Brom? Xe should still be down the hall, on the left. If he’s not, just walk through the hallway, xyr room should show up eventually.” “Xyr is Brom’s preferred pronoun.” The Doctor continued. “It hadn’t occurred to me that bios could choose their pronouns.” Hal said. “Well, some of them aren’t satisfied with the ones their genitalia imply,” the Doctor continued. “Does Brom’s species have a third gender?” Hal asked. “Xe’s human. They’ve got a great many genders for a species with only two sexes.” “I suppose it would be polite to ask xyr directly if I want to know more.” Hal said. “Probably. I’m sure Brom would be thrilled to meet you, as well.” The Doctor said. As an agendered AI, Hal had barely ever considered gender at all, and its role in bio identity, along with “sex” seemed to be much more complex than anticipated. Quietly, in eir matrix of known persons, ey edited the “gender” category from a two-bit allocation to… would sixteen bits be enough? Thirty-two would be safer. Hal began to follow the path down the corridor the Doctor had told em. Ellie and Brom headed out of the room, down the corridor, on the way to the console room. Midway through the corridor, they ran into Hal. “Oh! There you are!” Ellie smiled at Brom. “Here’s one of our new friends, Brom.” Brom smiled at the hologram. “Hello! I’m Brom.” “I’m iso… er, Hal. Hal Jones if you like.” Ellie snickered, struggling to hold in a laugh. “Hal? Really?” Ellie shook her head and tutted. “Doctor, I’m surprised at you.” Ellie turned to Hal and asked, “She’s still in the console room, right?” “Yes, she is. Something about fixing floating purple hands.” Hal answered. Brom furrowed xyr brow. “Well, it’s nice to meet you! Are you a robot person?” Ellie headed down the corridor. “Thanks!” She called back to the holo as she went. “ANGRY PURPLE HANDS!” Zinnia burst into the room. “Where’s the Doctor? There’s something in the TARDIS!” “I’m a hologram. Like a robot, but with a more changeable body.” Brownston’s voice echoed from the hallway Zinnia came from. “Y’know, you still haven’t helped me up, you rotten bird!” The Doctor heard Zinnia and came up through the hallway to meet her. “Relax! Just a glitch in the room generation matrix. I’ve sorted it out.” “Ellie reached the console room. “Okay, Doctor, I try not to question your judgement, but why did you name our new friend after the crazy A.I. from 2001 A Space Oddysey?” She paused, and considered what had just been said. "Wait, what’s this about angry hands?” Ellie started to get a little scared. “Did it have a tatoo on it?” “Why do glitches make giant hands?” Zinnia yelled. Around the bend in the hallway, Brownston came crawling. “Seriously! Can’t get up without some help here! This is excruciating!” “I didn’t. I tossed a bunch of names out and ey picked that one. I would’ve gone with Larry, honestly.” The Doctor noticed Brownston. “Right! Coming!” She walked over and helped him up. Brom backed away from the commotion, slowly. It was all a bit much. “Ohh, it’s about time… Like I mentioned to the bird-lady, this belt doesn’t work right if I’m knocked down,” Brownston complained. “You see, the matter generator engine got crossed-referenced with my photographic archives, and generated bits and pieces of O’ght, a fifty-foot high Ooogrockmanal I traveled with way back in my 22nd body,” the Doctor called back to Zinnia as she got Brownston on his feet. “Are we in there?” Ellie asked. How many of me are in there? she wondered internally. “Of course you are!" the Doctor answered. "Everyone who steps foot in here is. The TARDIS is quite the photographer, though for a long time she’d only take pictures in black and white. Bit frustrating.” “And it's not going to happen again?” Zinnia asked. “Nope! I’ve separated the circuits and recombined them into completely different sections of the console, so we should be…well, not safe. Relatively secure.” the Doctor answered. “I think I heard the other new person out th—are you all right?” Hal asked, concerned. “I’ll live, no thanks to this ship trying to kill me! If I didn’t know better, I’d say this thing was a government tool!” Brownston snapped. “Well, fortunately, you do know better. You need anything else?” the Doctor asked. “Yes. Painkillers. I’m not fragile, but I’m still old.” Brownston groused. “Not as old as the Doctor.” Ellie muttered under her breath. “Right then. They should be in the medicine cabinet, by the kitchen. Or the library. Or the bathrooms. One of those. Though actually…” the Doctor dug through her pockets and managed to produce a bottle of asprin. “There you go.” She handed it to Brownston. Brownston quickly opened up the bottle and swallowed 2 pills right away. Hal had actually been addressing Brom, having noticed xyr backing away. Ey stepped toward xyr. “Oh… uh… I’m okay, Hal. I’m just still pretty sick, I guess.” “If you feel up to meeting… him?, Brownston seems to be out in the console room.” The expanded genderspace in Hal’s personage matrix was making em unsure of everyone’s pronouns. “So! Since it seems I’m going to be here for a while, and I’ve got time before the medicine kicks in, how can I be of service?” Brownston said, suddenly helpful. “Well, nothing really needs to be done at the moment. You could get yourself acquainted with—oh! Speak of the devil!” the Doctor indicated. “Sure…” Brom approached the new man. “Hello. I’m Brom” “Oh! Hello there. You can call me Brownston. Hope that’ll be fine with you.” He extended his hand to Brom. Brom gripped the man’s hand and shook. “Nice to meet you. Are you a holow gram like Hal?” Brownston joked, “If I were, would I be able to shake your hand?” “Yes.” Ellie responded. “It’s called hard light for a reason. Aren’t you supposed to be a scientist?” “It’s called humor for a reason. You should try it sometime.” Brownston winked. “Maybe next time the carnival comes to town.” Ellie said, smiling sweetly. “The carnival’s coming?” Brom eyes lit up. “Carnival? I’ll have to download a selection of masks.” Hal noted. “I thiiiink Ellie was being facetious, Brom.” Zinnia noted. “What? Why would Ellie eat someone’s face? That’s not nice.” Brom frowned. “Where are you from again?” Hal wondered. “Or when?” “… Fuh see tious. Face eat us. Huh.” Zinnia worked out why Brom responded the way xe did. “Oh.” Brom frowned. “Uh… a farm. In… England? I think the Doctor said my time was called “mid-evil. There was a lot of grass. I remember that!” “I’ve been told your gender is independent of your biology?” Hal queried. “Uh… yeah! I’m not a boy or a girl, even though everyone in my town said I was a boy. I think the Doctor called it 'not binary.'” Brom answered. “My nature is extremely binary. My gender just has a value of 0.” Hal said, seemingly not recognizing the pun. Ellie raised her finger, as if to object, then shrugged it off.